


Sunlight

by ziegler



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Edeleth, F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Marriage, Mentions of Sex, Romance, Yuri, fluffy like a big white cloud, set after the end of CF route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:46:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22701190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziegler/pseuds/ziegler
Summary: Having accomplished the goal she set out to achieve, Edelgard von Hresvelg finds herself thoroughly enamored by one simple, remaining fact of life; that now, having abdicated her throne, married Byleth and even eloped with the woman she now calls her wife, all she has to do for the rest of her days is enjoy them.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 211





	Sunlight

Waking up to the bright, refreshing sight of a new dawn was always the perfect way to start any day.

However, waking up to it with the person you loved the very most at your side only made the morning even more satisfying to see.

And satisfying it was. Because out here, absorbed by all of the natural beauty the Adrestrian Empire had to offer, Edelgard von Hresvelg would wake up and think how she was incredibly proud of the region she'd managed to cultivate - with the help of her companions, of course.

In the early hours of each morning since their wedding, Edelgard had learned that she was always to be the one who would wake first. Byleth, sound asleep inside the warm, roomy tent that Edelgard had brought with her from the inside of the palace, snored gently in a dainty sniffle that made Edelgard's heart flutter with affection. To hear her lover so vulnerable and at peace was a gift; to see her in such a complete state right at her side was divine.

Edelgard's fingertips touched the soft stroke of Byleth's cheek with a collected tentativeness about them. She was a precious jewel, an indescribable treasure; a star that had shone so brilliantly in the sky that Edelgard could no longer _not_ have her at her side eternally. How many years had she spent missing her? How many days and nights had she spent, dreaming of the ways they could be with one another? The words failed her often, but especially in moments like these, where Edelgard's fingertips were, even now, still hesitant to stroke Byleth's cheek in case it woke her from this dream.

The birds that were outside in the warm, coming dawn of the late Spring morning chirruped to one another; balancing atop the floral branches of blossom trees and budding leaves, chattering inanely with beautiful birdsong and decorative notes from deep inside their breast. Every morning, listening to their song alone made Edelgard feel as though all of the suffering she'd had to endure to get to this point had made life wholly worth it, as long as she could experience it with Byleth. 

Part of her didn't want to go outside to look amongst the scenery when she felt as though all the beauty of the morning was right here. Byleth's chest rose and fell gently beneath the soft, cotton sheet that she shared with Edelgard, and her collarbone jutted out from her skin with a subtle protrusion; naked and exposed, just as most of her was throughout the nights now under Edelgard's touch.

“You're always so beautiful...” Edelgard whispered to herself in private awe, and lay herself momentarily back down against her lover's warm body. “I don't know how to put the way you make me feel into words.”

As though she could somewhat hear Edelgard's gentle voice, Byleth's lips curved into a slight smile that made Edelgard smile in turn as she watched. Resting her head warmly against the crook of Byleth's arm and shoulder, she nestled in to her embrace a little more cozily beneath the thin sheets, and felt her tired eyes beginning to be restored to their normal vision. The amber atmosphere of the tent's material shone down on Edelgard's skin in a muted, warm ambiance; as though they were inside a large cocoon, all to themselves; and, kissing Byleth's bare skin against her shoulder, Edelgard felt a slight blush along her cheeks.

The tent was a cozy, new form of home that Edelgard had _loved_ experiencing. At Byleth's suggestion, just before Edelgard had made the formal decision to abdicate from the throne, Edelgard had found her interest remarkably piqued at the notion.

To travel the world together, starting with Fodlan...surely, this was an excursion that would take a lifetime, and Edelgard was completely attracted to the idea. The romanticized thoughts of climbing the crystalline, frosted mountain tops with Byleth at her side only got better and better inside her mind; as well as frolicking through golden fields of wheat at dusk, or swimming the sapphire rivers and oceans that the world had to offer.

 _This_ was what life was supposed to be. _This_ was the grand adventure that Edelgard had been longing for – to be able to experience a small chunk of the universe under the warm, loving light of what she believed to be its brightest star; and the sunshine was there, too. The other star appealed much more to Edelgard. 

The tent they had decided to take along with them was large. Fit for a former and still well respected Empress like herself, and yet, here in the midst of the woods, it was somehow _just_ subtle enough to hide behind the grand, vivid green of the trees, and give off the impression that it was little more than a private, dowdy cottage that nobody should really bother investigating.

Life had begun to truly become a perfect experience, for both Edelgard and Byleth alike. Edelgard now woke up every day with an infectious enthusiasm for life, something that she had so often felt scornfully robbed of as a child, and now, as a fully accomplished adult in her mid twenties, having that bountiful hunger for life return was a gift in itself. Byleth, on the other hand, had always been the more positive of the two of them, and just to see Edelgard smile was enough to make her feel as though everything she'd worked so hard to achieve was worth the aggravation.

“Mm...”

Edelgard restrained the excitable gasp that longed to slip out of her lips as though it were the first time she'd seen Byleth all over again.

“Good morning,” she said with a soft smile.

Byleth's eyes opened slowly. Edelgard always enjoyed this part of the morning.

Her eyes would always open slowly; _just_ slowly enough to allure her gaze even more into looking upon the brilliant blue of her eyes; and the long, dark lashes that fluttered over them so often throughout the day, too. Byleth stretched out her arms slightly, a stretch that rung out through every one of her limbs as she moved beneath the sheets, and let out a sleepy, morning yawn as she wrapped her arms around Edelgard in a drowsy motion.

“Mm,” she replied a second time; her eyes closing all over again, and this time, lulled back to a warm sleep with Edelgard's body against her. Edelgard giggled.

“Come on, sleepyhead...” Edelgard said gently, cupping Byleth's face in her hands as she felt her arms warmly press against the small of her back. “Wake up.”

“...Give me five more minutes...” Byleth replied drowsily, her eyes still firmly closed, and Edelgard found that her smirk was big enough to at least give Byleth that reprieve.

“Alright. But _only_ if we are able to stay like this.”

“That's more than welcome. You are my wife now, after all.”

Warmed to her core by the morning's actions already, Edelgard grinned with her lips, her heart, and her eyes all at once.

She was thoroughly enamored with Byleth. Moments like this always only served to further that realization. She was in love, _infatuated_ , adoring, besotted; any kind of word that described an insurmountable affection for her was one that always fit the bill, and that was something that had not changed from the very moment they first met; unless it was to describe the love growing stronger.

Edelgard wasn't scared of the future; not anymore. Byleth alone had made sure of that.

As the ambient sounds of nature and the feeling of translucent light enveloping her here, in the comforting warmth of the tent, Edelgard kissed Byleth's forehead gently, and allowed her fingertips to coil the very edges of Byleth's navy hair around them with a loving stroke of each end.

It had been so strange to see Byleth with a different hair color. Edelgard didn't like it one bit. It was unnatural, borne from something that shouldn't have happened the ways that it did. It reminded her too much of those dark days before, when her own hair color had abruptly changed to this shock of platinum blonde; the days where she had been so surrounded by the unfamiliar, cruel presence of mages and hollow walls and the screams of her siblings. But that was her own history. With Byleth, she always felt a little ridiculous for allowing it to run that deeply. After all, it _was_ just a hair color. But something about Byleth having that light green just didn't sit right with her.

Despite that, Edelgard had not struggled to love Byleth. If anything, the sheer reappearance of her after five long years without her at her side had just made Edelgard love her all the _more_. The appreciation for those that you are forced to be without only grows during their absence; it really did make the heart grow fonder, for lack of a better expression; and Edelgard wasn't scared by that.

Now, here, in the warmth of their own little world, Byleth's navy hair was coiled around Edelgard's fingertips and being stroked against with her thumb, and in a moment, Edelgard would kiss it with her lips, and then she'd kiss Byleth's lips with her own softly as she lay at her side.

The birds outside had reduced their chattering and chirping to one another to be background noise along the music sheets of nature. Edelgard found her lips against Byleth's own in a soft tenderness that she was gradually beginning to accept as a part of her; and Byleth's arms, so strong and warm and perfectly scarred, held her against her side as they kissed. Edelgard's fingertips shifted to hold herself against her lover; and every time she got the luxury of touching her skin, it was just another opportunity at getting to explore every blemish and indent of the canvas that made up who she was.

The scars along the tops of her arms had been there for so long, now. Edelgard felt them; subconsciously running her fingertips along them as Byleth's body moved from laying down and shifted, lazily, in between her wife's legs, and Edelgard felt her head spinning as the weight of the woman she loved pressed in between them.

“I had a dream about you this morning.”

“You did?” Edelgard asks, breathlessly. Byleth nods into the crook of her neck as she places her lips there. Edelgard gasps quietly.

“I did,” Byleth whispers, and Edelgard can feel a shiver run down her back in delight. “I dreamt that we'd found a mountain with flowers in between them.”

Edelgard's fingertips stroke Byleth's hair behind her ears as she kisses at her neck.

“What kinds of flowers?”

“Carnations.”

Edelgard smiled.

“You remembered...” Edelgard blushes, and as she pulls Byleth's head up from kissing at her neck, she finds comfort in kissing at her lips a million and one times afterwards.

They make love that morning for what feels like a lifetime, but in reality, was probably around two or three hours. It was slow and it was sensitive, and it was every single bit of affection Edelgard could ever have craved from Byleth all wrapped up into one perfect, singular moment in the grand scheme of time. It felt as though Byleth's gentle hands had somehow slipped themselves around the hourglass of Edelgard's life, cupped her hands to hold the sand in place, and then dropped it all back down to allow the flow to continue right after.

“Garreg Mach feels like it was so long ago now, doesn't it?” Edelgard said into the silence that followed the afterglow of intimacy; resting her head against Byleth's breast as she lay atop her warm body. Byleth's heart thudded through her chest, recovering from the sudden physicality with Edelgard beneath her just moments ago, and took a breath to recover.

“What makes you say that?”

Edelgard paused.

“I don't know, really...” she answered honestly, and rest her hands under her chin as she turned to face Byleth as they lay together. “I suppose I've just been rather thoughtful this morning.”

Byleth's hands rest on Edelgard's exposed back, and begun stroking her skin. Edelgard felt as though she was in heaven.

“You've been a lot more thoughtful lately, haven't you?” She asked. “It's very sweet to hear about.”

“Is that so?”

“You have,” Byleth replied with a smile that melted Edelgard's heart. “I think being away from the palace life is incredibly good for you.”

Edelgard chuckled, and rest her head on her hands atop Byleth's chest as she felt her skin stroked softly.

“I can't help but agree.”

As the morning continued, Edelgard and Byleth found themselves talking moreso than anything else.

The background noises of the birds still remained, as did the soft rustling of the winds through the trees, and the scents of the fresh air outside, beckoning them both to adventure, to endlessly hope, and to a new beginning. The welcome ambience of nature was a beautiful reprieve after the horrible stenches of burned timber and coppery blood on the battlefield, and Edelgard felt as though her gratitude for her survival was never going to let up.

“Come on,” Edelgard said, pulling gently on Byleth's hand after they had gotten dressed. “Let's go.”

“Where are we going?” Byleth asked with a smile, and slipping on her jacket. Edelgard shook her head, returning the smile with one of her own as she stepped outside into the lush green of the grass, and felt the refreshing, calming breeze of the world around her against her skin.

“Does it matter?” She answered, and Byleth smiled as she stepped outside of the tent; taking Edelgard's hand gently in her own. Edelgard replied with a silent smile that said so much more than any amount of words ever could.

Edelgard von Hresvelg was a changed woman. A different woman, a more positive woman; a woman that appreciated every moment of every day for exactly what it was – a new chance to fall even more in love with both Byleth and the opportunities of life. And so; surrounded by the beauty of her Empire's nature, with all the lush greens, the floral colors, the animals that ran around undisturbed by humanity's presence; Edelgard turned to take one more look at her wife, before looking out over the horizon at the vast, seemingly unending sky, and thought how there was no way life was going to get any better than this.

**Author's Note:**

> i just wanted to do a lil something sweet for these two ladies. happy valentines day to you and yours! 
> 
> feel free to follow me on twitter over [@gloomhoarder](http://www.twitter.com/gloomhoarder)! thank you! ♥


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